Ares Galaxy

Ares is a piece of software which is designed to help you get access to the types of media that you know and love. The price of music, movies and games continues to increase over time and ordinary people just can't afford it, so they have no choice but to resort to using P2P networks like the one we provide.

The tool allows you to download from two separate networks to give you ultimate flexibility. If you're familiar with the torrent protocol you may choose to stick with it, this client can download all torrent files you'll find on the internet. The average user may instead choose to stick to the P2P network because of how easy it is to use, everything you need is included in this software package.

Also included is a huge amount of extras like an in-built media player, a library manager and a chat network to allow you to meet new people. All of this is included free with the download!

Required Operating System

Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/7

Application Type

File Size

2.87MB

Date Created

June 18th, 2004

Software Version

2.1.8.3042

Last Updated

Feb 2nd, 2012

Required

Full internet access

Download Link

Ares Download

One big thing you're going to need when you're using a piece of software like this is the ability to search. Not only do you need to be able to do this, but you need the tool to do it well. If you aren't able to search for what you're looking for and then get a decent result back, you won't be able to start any downloads going and thus it defeats the point of having the software in the first place. Ares Galaxy has powerful search functionality which allows you to enter relevant keywords as well as the type of media you're looking for, which helps to narrow down the results.

There is a huge variety of different files you're able to search for, ranging from the very common Audio and Video categories to the rarer and less commonly used ones such as Image and Document. There is of course an "Other" category for when you want to search for something which isn't listed. Perhaps the most important part of your search is the keywords you enter, this is what our Ares download will base its search of the network on so make sure the information you enter is accurate.

Documents are something that the majority of people will never search for in this tool but we can say that the feature is there if you want to use it. You'll find many types in here - such as the handwritten personal reports full of information that individuals have created themselves to help spread the word about certain things, or even reports created by big companies that are for sale too - eBooks included. It's a good idea to look through this, you'll find tons of extra information that you'll be glad to be able to use and find free of charge.

So after you've made a search and had the results of it returned to you, the only thing left for you to do is to actually download the data from the P2P network. All you need to do at this stage is to double click any of the results that you found in the search and the process will begin, you'll need to go into the Transfer tab to see Ares Galaxy initialise the transfer by connecting to peers and seeders and then retrieving the information from them. This doesn't really matter to you though, you can just sit back and watch it handle all of the work for you. The transfer shouldn't take long as long as the file size isn't too hefty, it depends on what you're downloading.

If you want to use the torrent protocol instead then you can do this by obtaining any .torrent file or use any magnet link and then open it in our Ares download. This tool provides full support for both of these and will run them just like any other client would, this piece of software has been built for both its own P2P network and the torrent protocol, making it one of the most powerful tools for file sharing in the industry, it truly is unique. The majority of programs these days tend to stick to just one, which means you often have to install multiple applications onto your computer to achieve the same goal. We think this is unnecessary.

Of course the results our software returns are not always perfect. In some cases it can be hard for any piece of software to work out what you're actually looking for. If you're struggling, we suggest trying to be more specific in what you want by providing more detailed keywords into the search fields.

When you've made a search, the next thing you're obviously going to be wanting is the results of the search, which should be returned as a list of files which the client believes is relevant to what you're looking for. It does a good job of this so you should find what you're searching for as long as the details you entered initially were accurate and precise enough. If you were searching for audio, for example, you would see a long list of different song titles, artists and file sizes, all of which can be downloaded individually.

One thing you do need to be aware of is that it isn't just about downloading every single one on the list. The ones higher up in the results tend to have more peers, which means more people in the network have it stored and therefore will give you better download speeds. We recommend that you stick to the higher ones rather than going near the bottom if you want to use our software in order to get what you're looking for quickly. Sometimes it cannot be helped, though, so the decision is yours.

Security should also be a concern of yours. You'll find more info about it on our website but usually the ones at the top of the list of results are the safest. In general, most of the files in the network are safe though because of the way the network handles files, it really has been built with you in mind. It's great to have access to files but it's even better to know that you can get them in a relatively safe environment where the chances of you getting malware is fairly slim if you know what you're doing.

Uploading back to the network is something that we always suggest you do if you've got something that you think other people will be wanting. This is exactly how a P2P network structure works - everyone contributes what they have back to the network. By doing this, resources can be shared, so if you have the latest movie that everyone wants then others will be able to get access to it, whereas if someone else has a new song that you want then you'd also be able to get it. It's a system that doesn't work based on greed as long as everyone does their part and joins in. People don't give back are called leechers.

The first part of the process is to select the files you want to share. Please don't give away anything personal to you as this isn't secure at all. Instead look at things such as songs, movies and applications that you don't mind others having and that don't affect you as a result. There's even an option built into Ares that will automatically scan all of the files on your hard drive and select the ones that may be appropriate to share back to the network. The best option is for you to do it manually though because then you can be completely sure about what you're giving back, it's very difficult to stop the transfer of files when you've already done it.

If you do want to stop files from being shared after you've added them, we recommend that you either move the location of the file or simply remove them from the sharing tab of the application. This will stop you from sharing it anymore, but bare in mind other people may still be sharing it themselves so it's very difficult to completely stop it unless you contact the current seeders somehow. This is why you really do need to think with your head first.

Once you've selected the files you're going to be sharing, it's time to add them to the network so that any other user can download them from you. This method depends on how you want to share it of course. To use the BitTorrent protocol you're going to need to create a .torrent file which you can do from this application. You'll then need to distribute this file to torrent indexing services such as The Pirate Bay which will host it for you. When others run this file in a torrent application their computers will connect to yours and the file transfer will begin automatically. Now let's explain how to do it in the P2P network that we offer, which we think is the best way of sharing files rather than the out-of-date BitTorrent.

To add it to the network so that it will show up in the search results whenever users make an entry into the search form, you'll need to go into Control Panel --> Filesharing. You can then either choose the manual option which is where you'll have to navigate through your hard drive in Windows Explorer and select each file you're happy with or alternatively you can let the app do the hard work and let it try and work out what should be shared. You can of course review them before they're added, this would be a good idea.

Note that you shouldn't expect it to be ranking highly in the search results straight away, it might not even show up for you because it was shared by your own IP address. This really isn't something you need to worry about though, you've done all you possibly can when you've added it to the system. The network should be able to take care of the rest, you can just sit back and let other people take the data from your computer.

After you've added your files to either the P2P network or the BitTorrent protocol, it's time for you to actually share what you've provided. What you do now depends on the approach that you've taken before. If you're sharing through torrents, you need to make sure your computer stays on until a large number of people have finished downloading from you and are seeding. While your computer is off nobody can download from you, which means if nobody has downloaded it yet then they won't be able to until you turn it on. When many people around the world have it, you'll know that people can download the content no matter what your computer is doing.

If you've shared on the Ares P2P network then you need to take a fairly similar approach. You can keep the program running in the background which is a good idea, but your computer also needs to be on. Usually after a few hours you'll have gotten some downloads and those people will be automatically sharing it too by default so you won't have to worry about it after this has happened. Note that once people have done so it's in the public network and you won't be able to take it down again as you have no idea who these people actually are, they are just IP addresses to you and your computer.

One thing that some users do to try and make sure they share a lot is to use a server. You can often rent these for a rather reasonable cost which can then stay running 24/7, either downloading or uploading files. You'd be able to access it via remote desktop connection as long as it was a Windows server and it'd also make sure you'd be able to download files without affecting your own personal internet connection and bandwidth limits. If you have the money to invest this could be a good thing to do, we recommend considering it.

Whenever you're using a piece of software like Ares, one thing you're always going to be wanting is very high speeds. It's pretty obvious why, you don't want to be waiting hours (or even days in some cases) just for a few simple songs or maybe a movie you want to watch. This is why optimization is so important, if you don't spend a bit of time getting the best setup for an application like this you'll end up paying for it later as you'll be waiting much longer than necessary for the data you love. One way you can do this is by improving your internet connection. You'll have to do some research first, though.

The vast majority of ISPs will offer different price plans where you can select one which you think is price effective and offers what you need. You'll be able to get much higher download speeds just by upgrading the plan you're on. Sure, it might cost you more but I think we can all agree when we say it'd be worth it. Internet connections are improving all of the time, in fact in some countries you can now get over 200Mb/s direct to your household for a fairly reasonable cost. It is all down to you, but this is the best way of improving your download speeds so we do recommend this action. The speeds you get will also depend on your location and your country.

To give you some examples on this matter, there is a league table of countries that are best connected to the internet in terms of speed. The average speed of a connection in a country such as Hong Kong is 9Mb/s, a fairly decent speed (although of course a lot of people are also on higher plans). This can be compared to a number of European locations such as Switzerland which currently has an average of 5.2Mb/s. You'll see that the difference really is massive depending on where you live and whether it's a rural area or a city.

Firewalls are something that can reduce the flow on incoming and outgoing traffic through your router and modem. It's done to try and protect you from bad packets that could go through your internet connection and to potentially put filters in place on what you're allowed to transfer. As a result of this, the speeds at which you get can be drastically reduced by your firewall which is obviously not what you want. This is why it's a good idea to let this tool pass straight through the firewall by forwarding the port on which it operates, the port number which you can find and change in the control panel.

Inside the software you're able to specify a port number which the client will then operate on. All traffic will be sent through this port, so you just need to tell the router that you want all traffic flowing through that port to be allowed straight through to reduce the chances of your speed dropping. This is different for every hardware setup but you can usually find it by going into your router's control panel. Look up specific informations regarding your router online if you have to, you should find guides. It's always a good idea to allow the application to pass through the Windows Firewall on your own computer too as this could act as a barrier between your computer and the general internet infrastructure.

In order to do this, you'll have to go into Start --> Control Panel and then click "Windows Firewall". You should see an option which allows you to list some exceptions which you want the operating system to simply allow through without any issues, you really do want our tool to be in there. You just need to click the add button and then navigate to the .exe file in the Program Files on your hard drive. You'll find a separate guide on our website for more detailed guidance on getting this done.

Our Ares free download is obviously going to be using a lot of network traffic if you're downloading a large number of files at very high speeds. There's no way of avoiding this, it is to be expected. However, a lot of other applications that you have installed onto your system may also be taking up a lot of traffic, which could mean less available for this program. If you want to get a file downloaded quicker, looking at what other pieces of software are doing is a good idea, especially if the download is essential and you need it as soon as possible. Let's mention a few examples.

Watching and streaming videos from websites like YouTube will use a lot of bandwidth, so too will applications like Skype when video chat is in progress. Even other instant messenger clients can have an impact. Of course if you have other file sharing applications installed as well these will need to be disabled if you want to make sure you get the best. You must repeat this process for all of the computers and devices connected to the same network because it is based on the network as a whole and not just your computer. If it's at a private household this will be easy, whereas maybe not so much at a public hotspot or in a business environment (where downloading data could be difficult anyway).

Do remember that even if you are in a public hotspot or business, you will still be responsible for the files you download. These days, your activity can be tracked by comparing the mac address on your computer to that on the router logs stored by the hotspot's owner. Of course it does make it harder for authorities and legal teams to prove it was you without actual footage of it taking place but it can still be done, so you're always taking a risk with doing it no matter where you actually are when doing it.

When you're trying to make a search in the program you'll find a huge list of results, all of which contain different titles, file sizes and from completely different people around the world. Some of these people will not be genuine and may be set out to harm your computer, so you need to be able to avoid them whenever possible. One of the ways you can do this is by looking at the file sizes of what you're about to download as often it gives a great impression of whether the file you're looking to obtain is the real thing or a nasty fake.

For example, if you're trying to download a whole music album you may expect it to be over 50MB at the very least. You can look at the other results to see this. Therefore if you find a result which is less than a megabyte then suspicions should be raised, it's unlikely that what you want is located in this file and therefore it may be a good idea to avoid it. By looking at a large number of results you should be able to pick out what doesn't look right.

You should notice the same thing when it comes to videos and movies too. The average movie is at least 500MB in size so it does take quite a while for the download to finish, you'll need a decent amount of bandwidth too. For this reason, it's very unlikely for a 50MB download to be the real thing. This is definitely not the only indicator you should look at though. If the difference is rather small, for example if a movie is around 300MB in size then it's likely that the movie has just been compressed and could still be the genuine thing, so it's worth thinking about before you just rush into a decision.

Another way of keeping yourself safe when you're using a piece of software like our Ares download is to enable a good quality anti-virus application. There are literally hundreds of them available on the market which makes it very difficult to choose from, especially because none of them are perfect. These are good because if there's anything malicious about the file you're about to open they will usually detect it correctly and warn you about it before it can do anything bad to your system or network. Selecting the right one is challenging though.

You can choose either a free or a paid anti-virus software. The paid ones are often more reliable so this is what we recommend you go with if you want to be safe. Please note that some of these may falsely detect our own software because of the nature of it so if that is the case feel free to open it up anyway, you know it's safe. A good example of a free one is AVG, one of the most popular, whereas we suggest BullGuard if you want a paid one.

Always go with one that has a lot of reviews too. Some smaller ones are actually fake and are designed to steal your credit card information and other illegal activities. You tend to find these on very small sites that nobody has heard of which is why research really is key to this. You're likely to end up with far more problems if you install a fake AV than if you download a fake movie or song. If you wanted to play it safe, you could just go into the nearest electronics or computer store where they should be able to sell you one created by a reputable brand that you know will get the job done for you without you having to panic.

A good way of keeping yourself and your system safe is simply by avoiding the potentially malicious file types. By this we mean applications and games, these are usually the ones that cause most people problems because the type of extension they are means they can have greater control over your computer. They're usually a .exe file, which is the format you should be more concerned about whenever you're using a P2P network. There are two different ways of which you can avoid them.

The first method is to do it manually - only download the files you know are going to be safe and not cause any issues. This means only looking for music and movies which are most of the time the safest formats you can download from. Of course sometimes you can make mistakes which could potentially be risky, so included in Ares Galaxy is an option to automatically filter out formats that could pose a threat.

You can find this option by loading up the software and then going into Control Panel --> Hashlinks --> "Filter Executable files". By selecting this, no executable files will be displayed in the results or downloaded to your system. For most this is fine, but if you're looking for an application anyway you may just have to take a risk. Note that this option is currently only available if you're using hashlinks, for .torrent files and the P2P network you're going to need to seek alternative options such as taking a look at the types of files first. We've already mentioned some good ideas on this website that might be worth a look at.

One of the things you do need to know about when you choose to download any type of media from the internet is the legalities of doing so. As you most certainly know by now, it is illegal to download files such as music and movies on the internet when you don't own any rights to it. It is currently illegal to participate in these actions and all responsibilities are down to you, we cannot take the blame for this. Our network is not built for illegal purposes, but for the distribution of all kinds of data. Having said this, there are several ways of trying to protect yourself from being caught which you'll find on our website.

It is also illegal to share these when you don't have the permission to do so. In fact, courts usually try to find the sharers rather than the downloaders so this should be on your mind when you're doing it. Tools such as PeerGuard help to protect your IP address when you're participating in file sharing so this is one of the ways, although of course it isn't a guaranteed solution. Ares really doesn't seem to have a big problem with legal action though, it tends to be the huge websites like The Pirate Bay that face problems in this regards, but we do need to tell you anyway. Stay safe whenever you're doing anything like this, some countries are stricter than others too.

For example, the United States is a country where it's easier for companies to take action against you because of the way the law works, whereas in countries such as South Africa you could probably get away with it more easily. Action can still be taken in any country, though, and you could still get away with it in any country too. It really depends on how you play the game and if you know how to hide well or not. If you follow the advice on our website you should know what you're doing.

One thing you'll be happy to know about is that this application is completely open source. These days everything revolves around money, where software developers are spending all of their time creating software that they can then sell for large sums of money, making it more and more difficult for the end user. Open source projects are great for everyone - the community can really get behind them and help to create a product that is available to everyone free of charge, that contains huge amounts of features that you wouldn't get from any paid product. There are a few other really popular projects like this as well such as the Open Office suite, Apache and other well known tools.

Our Ares Galaxy free download allows anyone to look at the source code and help to contribute improvements if they want to. This of course is made for developers so if you're someone who doesn't have programming experience then you may not care about it so much, but what you should know is the background to how the tool is developed and the huge amount of work that has been put in to make it what it is today. Lots of people take advantage of this work, we think all of the development team do a great job in creating and publishing this great P2P network.

If you want to contribute yourself then we'd highly recommend you either use the contact form on our website and we'll provide you with some additional information to help get you started or you could simply install the software yourself and click the link in it. You'll be able to get the source code and read the documentation which has been created for it, to help you prepare for the interfaces and the modules which makes up the tool. If you aren't a developer, this is something you'll never see and will never need to worry about either.

Now that you know this software is open source, you may be wondering what rights you have in terms of distribution. This is aimed at a rather specific group of people, most people will never need to share the installation file with others but we're going to explain it all to you anywhere so that you're aware.of what you're doing. By the terms of the license it is distributed under, you're allowed to share the install file to anyone you want without ever having any problems, as long as you include the source code of the project with it. This is essential, you will be breaking the terms if you don't include the source code as well.

Something that you might not think you're able to do is also possible. You can even alter the source code of the project yourself and then even distribute it as if it was your own, with no credit required as long as you include the genuine source code of the project. If you really wanted to you could even sell it and make all of the profit from it yourself, but you may have trouble trying to get people to buy something that is actually available for free unless you make some great improvements to it. We think that this tool should remain free though, anyone can get it from our website without any cost or hassle involved. Great stuff.

There are actually quite a few companies which are doing this on the internet, you'll probably find a lot of them if you search on Google for any terms relating to this piece of software. They usually distribute under different names to try and fool you into paying for them. This is legal and can be done under the terms of licensing but we believe that it tricks people, but unfortunately we cannot stop it from happening. Distributing it for free is always for the best in our opinions.

Keeping all of the files that you've downloaded through the network stored and organised is absolutely essential. If you obtain something and then can't find it again later you may end up having to repeat the download again which is a waste of both your time and your internet bandwidth. If you could keep the data in a permanent location where you could group the files by the type of media as well as make searches across it to find what you need whenever you want something, would you use it? This tool provides full support for this, it calls itself the library.

The library feature really makes life easier for you because you no longer have to worry about where your files are or what you've done with them. You don't even have to place files into it yourself, whenever a download has been completed it will be automatically added to the library where you'll be able to find it immediately. Our Ares free download gives you the functionality to search for files, browse through them as well as opening them and it can all be done just by opening the software.

There are also multiple ways of organising how your files are shown - such as the order of them if you want specific ones to show near the top (so they're easier to obtain). This can be done in multiple different ways depending on the type of content you're working on. This means that files you need to look at often will be where you expect them to be, it could be in alphabetical order or grouped by the name of the artist, even the type of music or video it is. This is a really simple feature that adds something truly excellent into the package to make everything easier for you to use.

If you've ever downloaded any audio or video from any file sharing software, you may have come across a problem where the data isn't actually what you wanted it to be. You could have spent hours obtaining it if the file size is large and if it wasn't what you were looking for, you'd have wasted a lot of bandwidth and internet usage which really is bad for those of fixed bandwidth internet lines. Fortunately, Ares Galaxy provides a media player built-in which not only allows you to play what you've downloaded when they've finished, but you can also preview files while the data is still being transferred to ensure this problem doesn't happen.

Whenever you're downloading any audio or video - whether it be the latest album or movie to something a bit older - you can simply open our Ares download and then go into the Transfer tab. By right clicking on any of the ones in progress, you should find a "Preview" option and by selecting this, you'll find that the data currently downloaded will start playing in the "Screen" tab. This can be a great help, but let some data download first.

The compatibility of this media player is also very good. You'll find that all common and popular industry standard formats are allowed to be played using this media player. Formats for video and movies include the typical AVI file, the one which is used most often on the internet because of the way it can be compressed. MPEG files are also allowed for this purpose and for music files, you have a wide range of MP3, WAV, AAC and many more. Anything you obtain from the network should be instantly playable in the media player, you'll be glad to know.

When you think about file sharing applications, one thing that probably doesn't pop into your mind initially is chat. You expect to be able to download files quickly and efficiently and that's all, you don't think about any extras that could be there. If this is the case, you really are missing out because chatting is one of Ares' best features - you can meet new people and talk to existing friends through this software and it is all built-in so you don't need any extensions or anything like that and it's completely free of charge too.

You'll need to set up your user account first to share some information about yourself. You can do this in the Control Panel, you must set a nickname and password and could give some optional information too. You can then go straight into the Chat tab and join any of the chatrooms to begin your discussions. When you're in, our Ares download will let you talk to every person who is also in the chatroom. Other features have been added too such as private messaging giving you great freedom.

You can talk to as many people as you want through this software too, but be careful while doing it. Private messaging should only be enabled if you're sure about what you're doing, it isn't always safe talking individually. If you start to get to know someone really well in the public chat it could be a good way of meeting a new friend online as long as you don't give too much personal information away about yourself. Around the world more and more people are meeting each other through digital means so it can be a good thing in some cases.